Shopping in actual stores is en vogue again as 43% of Americans admit they miss the chaos of picking up in-person Black Friday deals.
A poll of 2,003 U.S. adults found 95% plan to participate in Black Friday and/or Cyber Monday events this year, with a third planning to shop both online and in stores.
Not having to wait in lines makes online sales for both days appealing, but the survey showed that a 63% majority consider in-person Black Friday shopping to be a tradition.
More Gen Z respondents than millennials cited immediate fulfillment as their primary driver to shop these events in person (81% vs. 49%).
Overall, 42% said in-store Black Friday shopping holds more importance for them than it did before the pandemic, including nearly half (49%) of male respondents.
But the poll revealed there are some parts of e-commerce that people wish they could bring into a brick-and-mortar store—such as being able to see what aisle an item is in (51%) and using promo codes or digital coupons (47%).
There are still barriers to in-store shopping though, like lack of convenience due to weather conditions and long lines (34%), seeing better deals online (34%), and health and safety concerns (33%).
“The pandemic has certainly made many people nostalgic for the in-person Black Friday experience, but it’s also heightened their expectations,” said Janelle Estes, Chief Insights Officer at UserTesting, which commissioned the random double-opt-in survey conducted by market research company OnePoll.
Despite ongoing inflation, nearly a third (31%) expect to spend more money on Black Friday and Cyber Monday than in previous years. The average person spent $440 three years ago and are ready to buy $557 worth of on-sale items in 2022.
“With 42% saying they plan to shop in the metaverse this year, brands must continuously work to become more ‘phygital’, bridging the gap between the physical and digital customer experience,” Janelle added. “That includes maintaining consistent quality both in-store and online.”
BLACK FRIDAY 2022: IN-STORE SHOPPING MOTIVATORS
-Instant gratification (i.e. avoiding backorders and shipping delays) – 46%
-Being able to secure items ahead of time – 42%
-Better customer experience in-store than online – 39%
-Better deals in-store than online – 37%
-Not having to fight over items with other people – 37%
-Not having to wait in a long line of people – 37%
-Having better sales or deals in person – 36%
-Having it organized better – 36%
-Curbside shopping – 28%
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A woman loves cleaning so much that she gave up her job and is now traveling the world scrubbing homes for free, helping women who need a huge hand.
Auri Katariina was a service manager at a cleaning company in Finland in the summer of 2021, when she decided to quit and follow her unique passion.
“My dream is to clean for free all over the world, and help people whilst doing something I absolutely love,” said the 29-year-old, who has become a bit of a social media sensation, by sharing her cleaning tips.
“I’ve always loved cleaning, and I began posting videos online of me just cleaning my family and friends home’s two years ago.
“Then one day, a woman asked me for help because she was struggling so much and her home was so messy. She had three kids and her husband had just taken his own life, so she was finding it really difficult.”
Auri, who says she’s “in heaven” whenever she cleans, was more than happy to help—in fact, she was “excited” to help.
“I went on a weekend and cleaned her home for two days. By the end she was crying and her kids were hugging me and thanking me. I could see the transformation in the house and how happy they were and it was the best feeling ever.”
The young woman from Tampere has gone as far as the USA and UK to help people who are in desperate need of decluttering and cleaning.
Auri Katariina / SWNS
Now, thanks to her huge TikTok following of 7.8 million fans, and the 2.1Mil on Instagram who watch her viral videos that share cleaning tips—and, before-and-after photos—a corporate sponsor has reached out to cover her expenses.
She decides where to clean from reading requests she gets online, but chooses only the dirtiest, grimiest homes belonging to people most in need.
“I only clean for free. You can’t buy my services and I won’t ever charge anyone to clean their home.
For the first six months she covered all travel and product expenses herself, about 300 euros per visit. Then Scrub Daddy, a cleaning sponge brand, became a sponsor.
Now, Auri goes to clean strangers’ homes once a week, for two days, and creates content for her social media channels, including lists of some of her top tips—some of which have racked up 24 million views.
“When I go in, I always start with just taking all the rubbish out and decluttering all the surfaces. From there, I usually clean the hallways first so I can walk through, but honestly it doesn’t matter where you start—just start!”
Some of her viral cleaning tips
Her biggest trick when cleaning ovens or stoves is to use cling film: “It’s absolutely magical.”
“If you have a dirty stove, put oven cleaner and cling film on it, wait overnight and the stains will melt away – the same goes for inside your oven.”
“A lot of the time, it’s not about a fancy product that you use, it’s about the time and the tools. If you have limescale in your bathroom, a lot of people ask what product is best to use, but really the most important thing is a strong tool like a scraper and a metal scourer.
Most of the cleaning agents she recommends are simple and natural.
“I wash my toilet and shower with just dish soap—it’s the best product ever. It removes grease, and in the shower you of course have grease from your body so it can remove all of that.
For your home office, Auri says less is more. “All you need for dust is a microfiber cloth and water, it removes 99% of everything, you don’t need any product.”
Her tool kit mostly just contains only a few basic things: vinegar, dish soap, oven cleaner, power paste from Scrub Daddy, a scourer, a scraper, a dish brush (or old tooth brush)—which is fantastic for tiny crevices—a duster, microfibre cloth, and a Scrub Daddy Sponge, which appropriately is in the shape of a smiley face.
She said that some jobs take longer than the usual two days. “There was one home which took four days because the girl had lived there for six years, but was just too depressed to clean.
“She was such a lovely girl, but she was so depressed she had even shaved her head so she didn’t have to take a shower. Her bathroom was totally black, but I cleaned all day and it was so great by the end.
“People that I help are often really struggling, but they want to change, so I come and help them take the first step. Many people send me messages after six months or a year, showing me their homes that are still clean, which is great.
Auri feels passionately that cleaning should be a fun activity, rather than a chore. Watch her perform some magic in this video of a hideous bathroom mess:
Advice if you don’t like cleaning
“When I clean, I start with looking around the house and just seeing what’s dirty – I don’t do the same thing every time, because then it gets boring, and then during the week if I see something that needs cleaning I’ll do it then. What I recommend is to put a 15 minute timer on and do as much as you can. It’s okay to clean poorly, you don’t always have to vacuum the whole floor, just do the living room.
“People stress too much about cleaning, it’s not that serious if you have stains or have forgotten to clean something—your house doesn’t always need to be extremely clean like it is in magazines.”
1. Put clingfilm over cleaning products and leave it overnight to remove tough dirt.
2. Use dish soap to clean your toilet and shower.
3. Clean little and often—don’t feel pressured to clean everything at once.
4. First job is to always take out the rubbish then go from there
5. Focus on using good tools rather than fancy products
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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY – Week of November 5, 2022
Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
“Fear is the raw material from which courage is manufactured,” said author Martha Beck. “Without it, we wouldn’t even know what it means to be brave.” I love that quote—and I especially love it as a guiding meditation for you Scorpios right now. We usually think of fear as an unambiguously bad thing, a drain of our precious life force. But I suspect that for you, it will turn out to be useful in the coming days. You’re going to find a way to transmute fear into boldness, bravery, and even badassery.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
For decades, the Canadian city of Sudbury hosted a robust mining industry. Deposits of nickel sulphide ore spawned a booming business. But these riches also brought pollution. Sudbury’s native vegetation was devastated. An effort to re-green the area began in the 1970s. Today, the air is among the cleanest in the province of Ontario. In the spirit of this transformation, I invite you to embark on a personal reclamation project. Now is a favorable time to detoxify and purify any parts of your life that have been spoiled or sullied.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
The literal meaning of the ancient Greek word aigílips is “devoid of goats.” It refers to a place on the earth that is so high and steep that not even sure-footed goats can climb it. There aren’t many of those places. Similarly, there are very few metaphorical peaks that a determined Capricorn can’t reach. One of your specialties is the power to master seemingly improbable and impassable heights. But here’s an unexpected twist in your destiny: In the coming months, your forte will be a talent for going very far down and in. Your agility at ascending, for a change, will be useful in descending—for exploring the depths. Now is a good time to get started!
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
Evolved Aquarians are often blessed with unprecedented friendships and free-spirited intimacy and innovative alliances. People who align themselves with you may enjoy experimental collaborations they never imagined before engaging with you. They might be surprised at the creative potentials unleashed in them because of their synergy with you. In the coming weeks and months, you will have even more power than usual to generate such liaisons and connections. You might want to make a copy of this horoscope and use it as your calling card or business card.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
I surveyed the history of literature to identify authors I consider highly intuitive. Piscean-born Anais Nin was my top choice. She used language with fluidity and lyricism. She lived a colorful, unpredictable life. No one better deserves the title of Intuition Champion. And yet she also had a discerning view of this faculty. She wrote, “I began to understand that there were times when I must question my intuition and separate it from my anxieties or fears. I must think, observe, question, seek facts and not trust blindly to my intuition.” I admire her caution. And I suspect it was one reason her intuition was so potent. Your assignment, Pisces, is to apply her approach to your relationship with your intuition. The coming months will be a time when you can supercharge this key aspect of your intelligence and make it work for you better than it ever has before.
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
In the coming weeks, I encourage you to work as hard as you have ever worked. Work smart, too. Work with flair and aplomb and relish. You now have a surprisingly fertile opportunity to reinvent how you do your work and how you feel about your work. To take maximum advantage of this potential breakthrough, you should inspire yourself to give more of your heart and soul to your work than you have previously imagined possible. (PS: By “work,” I mean your job and any crucial activity that is both challenging and rewarding.)
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
Here’s my weird suggestion, Taurus. Just for now, only for a week or two, experiment with dreaming about what you want but can’t have. And just for now, only for a week or two, go in pursuit of what you want but can’t have. I predict that these exercises in quixotic futility will generate an unexpected benefit. They will motivate you to dream true and strong and deep about what you do want and can have. They will intensify and focus you to pursue what you do want and can have.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
Your most successful times in life usually come when all your various selves are involved. During these interludes, none of them is neglected or shunted to the outskirts. In my astrological opinion, you will be wise to ensure this scenario is in full play during the coming weeks. In fact, I recommend you throw a big Unity Party and invite all your various sub-personalities to come as they are. Have outrageous fun acting out the festivities. Set out a placemat and nametag on a table for each participant. Move around from seat to seat and speak from the heart on behalf of each one. Later, discuss a project you could all participate in creating.
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
A Cancerian reader named Joost Joring explained to me how he cultivates the art of being the best Cancerian he can be. He said, “I shape my psyche into a fortress, and I make people feel privileged when they are allowed inside. If I must sometimes instruct my allies to stay outside for a while, to camp out by the drawbridge as I work out my problems, I make sure they know they can still love me—and that I still love them.” I appreciate Joost’s perspective. As a Cancerian myself, I can attest to its value. But I will also note that in the coming weeks, you will reap some nice benefits from having less of a fortress mentality. In my astrological opinion, it’s PARTY TIME!
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
Leo poet Antonio Machado wrote, “I thought my fire was out, and I stirred the ashes. I burnt my fingers.” I’m telling you this so you won’t make the same mistake, Leo. Your energy may be a bit less radiant and fervent than usual right now, but that’s only because you’re in a recharging phase. Your deep reserves of fertility and power are regenerating. That’s a good thing! Don’t make the error of thinking it’s a sign of reduced vitality. Don’t overreact with a flurry of worry.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
Virgo author Siegfried Sassoon became renowned for the poetry he wrote about being a soldier in World War I. Having witnessed carnage firsthand, he became adept at focusing on what was truly important. “As long as I can go on living a rich inner life,” he wrote, “I have no cause for complaint, and I welcome anything which helps me to simplify my life, which seems to be more and more a process of eliminating inessentials!” I suggest we make Sassoon your inspirational role model for the next three weeks. What inessentials can you eliminate? What could you do to enhance your appreciation for all the everyday miracles that life offers you?
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
You Libras have a talent that I consider a superpower: You can remove yourself from the heart of the chaos and deliver astute insights about how to tame the chaos. I like that about you. I have personally benefited from it on numerous occasions. But for the next few weeks, I will ask you to try something different. I’ll encourage you to put an emphasis on practical action, however imperfect it might be, more than on in-depth analysis. This moment in the history of your universe requires a commitment to getting things done, even if they’re untidy and incomplete. Here’s your motto: “I improvise compromises in the midst of the interesting mess.”
WANT MORE? Listen to Rob’s EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES, 4-5 minute meditations on the current state of your destiny — or subscribe to his unique daily text message service at: RealAstrology.com
Quote of the Day: “Our goals are the same as those of the UN’s founders, who sought to replace a world at war with one where the rule of law would prevail… where conflict would give way to freedom from violence.” – Ronald Reagan (Excerpt from an address by President Reagan to the United Nations General Assembly)
Photo by: Colin Lloyd
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By splitting a single laser beam into different wavelengths of light, engineers have been able to transmit data at a rate of almost twice the combined internet traffic of the world per second.
This head-scratching achievement was made with just a laser and single optical chip.
Engineers from Chalmers University of Technology and the Technical Univ. of Denmark fired an infrared laser through a splitter called a “frequency comb” which divided the light into many different colors.
Each of the colors, or frequencies, can carry data by modulating their amplitude, phase, and polarization. The total amount of data that can be encoded is 1.8 petabits per second, or 1.8 million gigabytes; 800,000 more than the average global bandwidth of the whole internet.
A single optical chip designed by Chalmers was easily able to carry 1.8 Pbit/s, which—with contemporary state-of-the-art commercial equipment—would otherwise require more than 1,000 lasers.
The work of Leif Katsuo Oxenløwe et al. showed also that the technology is scalable.
“Our calculations show that—with the single chip and a single laser—we will be able to transmit up to 100 Pbit/s.”
“The reason for this is that our solution is scalable—both in terms of creating many frequencies and in terms of splitting the frequency comb into many spatial copies and then optically amplifying them, and using them as parallel sources with which we can transmit data,” said Professor Oxenløwe, who added it bodes well for emissions targets, of all things.
“In other words, our solution provides a potential for replacing hundreds of thousands of the lasers located at Internet hubs and data centers, all of which guzzle power and generate heat. We have an opportunity to contribute to achieving an Internet that leaves a smaller climate footprint.”
In May this year, New Atlas reports that a 1.04 Pbits/s transmission record was made in Japan with different technologies. Oxenløwe noted that there are people all over the world working to make these kinds of internet capacities a reality.
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Data collected by mobile phones could be used to assess the structural integrity of bridges, suggests a new study, informing potential maintenance requirements and keeping them in action for 30% longer.
Using the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco as an example, researchers showed that smartphones can capture the same kind of information about bridge vibrations picked up by stationary sensors
The findings suggest that crowdsourced monitoring could be a cheap and convenient way to monitor the structural integrity of transportation infrastructure worldwide, and could potentially increase the lifespan of bridges by up to 30%.
There is a global need for infrastructure monitoring to improve the resilience and longevity of bridges, buildings, and other structures—it’s pretty much a guaranteed applause-grabber in political debates in America, because the need is so great.
The structural health of bridges is usually visually assessed by engineers on-site, which is often time consuming and infrequent, or measured using static sensors incorporated into the bridge, which are expensive.
Measuring the vibrational frequencies of bridges has previously been used to identify bridge damage and deterioration, but the data to support this approach have been limited.
Publishing their work in the journal Nature Communications Engineering, a team at MIT developed an Android-based app that collects data while travelling across a bridge which they compared with traditional bridge-based sensors.
“As data from multiple trips over a bridge are recorded, noise generated by engine, suspension and traffic vibrations, [and] asphalt, tend to cancel out, while the underlying dominant frequencies emerge,” said Dr. Paulo Santi.
In the case of the Golden Gate Bridge, the researchers drove over it 102 times with their devices running and they used 72 trips by Uber drivers with activated phones as well.
They then compared the resulting data to what had been collected by 240 sensors that had been placed on the Golden Gate Bridge for three months.
Results showed that data from the phones converged with that from the bridge sensors. For 10 particular types of low-frequency vibrations the engineers measured, there was a close match, and in five cases there was no discrepancy between the methods at all.
However, because most bridges are not suspension bridges the researchers decided to test their method on smaller and more common concrete span bridges.
To do so, they studied a bridge in Ciampino, Italy, comparing 280 vehicle trips over the bridge to six sensors that had been placed on the bridge for seven months.
Here there was a 2.8% divergence between what was recorded with the stationary sensors and the smartphone data, while shorter trip numbers created more divergence, suggesting more trips would create less.
Architecture Professor at MIT Carlo Ratti said there are ways to refine and expand the research, for example by accounting for the effects of the smartphone mount in the vehicle and the influence of the vehicle type on the data.
“We still have work to do, but we believe that our approach could be scaled up easily — all the way to the level of an entire country,” said Ratti.
“It might not reach the accuracy that one can get using fixed sensors installed on a bridge, but it could become a very interesting early-warning system. Small anomalies could then suggest when to carry out further analyses.”
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A bizarre cross between a bird and a dinosaur had blue, brown and grey feathers, a long tail, and small teeth.
What’s more, their brain morphology is perfectly transitional between bird and reptile, with a brain likely built to smell like reptiles, but also to see well in daylight like birds.
Jeholornis lived 120 million years ago, and recently scientists have digitally-reconstructed its skull for the first time at the Field Museum in Chicago.
“If you look at the skulls of dinosaurs, what you see is a spot for a very reptile-like brain,” said co-author Professor Matteo Fabbri at the museum, “meaning they have very large olfactory bulbs, and the optic lobes in the midbrain are reduced.”
“They probably had a very good sense of smell and not great sight, which is very reptilian. And on the other hand, if you look at modern birds, they do the reverse. They have small olfactory bulbs, and very large optic lobes. Jeholornis falls in the middle.”
Raven-sized Jeholornis is the earliest known animal to eat fruit. The international team selected the best specimen unearthed from prehistoric graveyards in China.
It was finely preserved and intact but a little flattened by layers of sediment deposited across the ages.
“It is very difficult to find the right skull among around 100 fossils, since we won’t know if one skull will provide us the information we want before the scanning,” said co-author Han Hu, from Oxford University, who added high-quality screening costs were also quite high.
“However, I chose one [that] at least from the exposed surface, it is relatively complete. What is also important is this skull is isolated from other parts of its body. [An] isolated skull will reduce the size of the scanning area, which will increase the scanning quality a lot.
“Luckily, the specimen we chose here for this project is nearly a perfect one – it provided us so much unknown information after the digital reconstruction.”
The study, published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society provides the first accurate depiction of Jeholornis—showing it was among the earliest examples of dinosaurs evolving into birds.
“Jeholornis is my favorite Cretaceous bird,” said co-author Prof Jingmai O’Connor candidly, also from the Field Museum. “This study is the first time we are really getting at what this bird’s skull looked like, what its brain must have been like, which is really exciting.”
Knowing the shape and dimensions of a fossil bird’s skull tells us a lot about its brain—like how a glove gives a decent approximation of a hand.
What’s more, brain structures are conserved across species over time. Olfactory bulbs and the cerebellum are in the same general spots in a frog, a human or a fossil bird.
Jeholornis had bigger olfactory bulbs than most modern birds with a few exceptions such as vultures, meaning it probably relied more on smell.
Dr. Fabbri said the story of Jeholornis is “not just different from dinosaurs and modern birds, it is different from other early birds too. It is not a straightforward evolutionary story.”
“Its special position as one of the most primitive birds during the dinosaur-bird transition determines completing its story will reveal the true scenery of that critical evolutionary period, and also, tell us why and how the modern birds—the only living dinosaurs—evolved to be what we see now.”
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CNIO researchers Marcos Malumbres and Carolina Villarroya
CNIO researchers and lead authors Marcos Malumbres and Carolina Villarroya
A unique patient who has survived a dozen different types of cancer tumors over a lifetime could provide the key for researchers to develop new early detection and immunotherapy treatments, say scientists.
A cancer diagnosis can change someone’s life, but 12 is nothing that any of us could probably comprehend.
The course of this individual’s life has been nothing short of extraordinary. They first developed a tumor when almost still a baby, followed by others every few years. In less than forty years of life, the patient has developed twelve tumors, at least five of them malignant, each in a different part of the body.
Despite this death sentence as most would see it, the patient’s immune system seems to be supercharged, and capable of producing anti-inflammatory responses strong enough to fight off all these various cancers.
When the patient first came to Spain’s National Center for Investigative Oncology (CNIO), a blood sample was taken to sequence the genes most frequently involved in hereditary cancer, but no alteration was detected in them. The researchers then analyzed the individual’s entire genome and found mutations in a gene called MAD1L1.
This gene is essential in the process of cell division and proliferation. CNIO researchers analyzed the effect of the mutations detected, and concluded that they cause alterations in the number of chromosomes in the cells—all cells in the human body have 23 pairs of chromosomes.
In animal models, it has been observed that when there are mutations in both copies of this gene—each coming from one parent—the embryo dies. To the astonishment of the researchers, the person in this case has mutations in both copies but has survived—something that has simply never been seen before.
“Academically we cannot speak of a new syndrome because it is the description of a single case, but biologically it is,” said co-author of the study, Miguel Urioste from CNIO.
“Other genes whose mutations alter the number of chromosomes in cells are known, but this case is different because of the aggressiveness, the percentage of aberrations it produces and the extreme susceptibility to a large number of different tumors.”
It is the hypothesis of the reporting authors that the constant production of these double-mutated copies has created a chronic immune system defense to these types of cells, which helps tumors disappear more quickly.
The discovery that the immune system is capable of unleashing a defensive response against cells with the wrong number of chromosomes is, according to the authors, “one of the most important aspects of this study, which may open up new therapeutic options in the future.” Seventy percent of human tumors have cells with an abnormal number of chromosomes.
Furthermore, this literally one-of-a-kind person could pave the way for better diagnoses.
An individual cell by cell analysis of the patient and some relatives who have single mutations of the MAD1L1 gene revealed, among other anomalies, that the blood cells contained several hundred chromosomally identical lymphocytes, thus coming from a single, rapidly proliferating cell.
Lymphocytes are defensive cells that attack specific invaders; sometimes, however, a lymphocyte proliferates too much and spreads to form a tumor. That is the process which in this work the single-cell analysis would be capturing: the earliest stages of a cancer.
Based on this finding, the researchers propose in their paper that single-cell analysis can be used to identify cells with tumor potential long before the appearance of clinical symptoms or markers observable in analytical tests.
Quote of the Day: “I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow.” – Thomas Paine
Photo by: J W @bakutroo
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Architectural features of the unearthed operating room (left) share considerable similarities to the scene depicted in Joel Babb’s painting (right) of the first successful human organ transplant, which took place at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in 1954. (Right image credit: Harvard Medical Library collection, Center for the History of Medicine in the Francis A. Countway Library, Harvard University)
In this iconic 1954 photo, shot from the balcony above the operating theater, Joseph Murray (center) and his colleagues perform the first successful human organ transplant. – Courtesy of Harvard University
During recent renovations to a clinic and office space in the second largest teaching hospital at Harvard Medical School, construction crews uncovered remnants of a historical operating room—the OR believed to have hosted the world’s first successful human organ transplant.
While removing walls, workers at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital were surprised to find what appeared to be an old operating room with an adjacent balcony for watching surgical cases.
Brigham faculty members had heard over the years that an old OR from the predecessor institution (Peter Bent Brigham Hospital) was in the vicinity of this location, but they thought it was one floor below.
But, when photos of the abandoned space were compared to historical images in the hospital’s archives, the architectural features of the room suggest it was likely the OR where Dr. Joseph Murray transplanted a kidney from one identical twin to another 68 years ago.
After the procedure in 1954, Murray would go on to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his groundbreaking work—and the subsequent development of immunosuppressive drugs.
A painting by Joel Babb, The First Successful Kidney Transplantation depicted a wide view of what Murray’s operating room looked like, before undergoing many renovations over the years which prepared the space for other uses.
While the artist took some artistic liberties in recreating the scene on canvas, there are striking similarities between details in the painting and rediscovered room, such as the upper arches in the balcony, explained Catherine Pate, hospital archivist.
Architectural features, like the balcony arches, of the unearthed operating room (left) share considerable similarities to the scene depicted in Joel Babb’s painting (right) of the first successful human organ transplant, which took place at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in 1954. (Right image courtesy of: Harvard Medical Library collection, Center for the History of Medicine in the Francis A. Countway Library, Harvard University)
“The most requested picture of all the many thousands in the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Archives is the one we have of the kidney transplant between brothers Ronald and Richard Herrick on Dec. 23, 1954, in a Brigham operating room. From the evidence, it is likely this room,” Pate told the Brigham Bulletin.
“The achievement of the first-ever successful human organ transplant was comparable in the field of medicine to the first moon landing in the field of aerospace. The bravery of this step into the unknown, especially by the first donor, Ronald Herrick, and the physician/scientists of the Peter Bent Brigham transplantation team, takes your breath away when you stop to think about it.”
The room itself was part of the original Peter Bent Brigham building in Boston at 15 Francis St., dating back to 1912. And while features of the room such as the balcony were retained in later reconfigurations, the original fixtures and furnishings were updated over the years and, subsequently, have been lost to history, explained Sonal Gandhi, vice president of Real Estate, Planning and Development.
“Although no original parts of the original operating room were found during this latest renovation, plans are underway to ensure this discovery is acknowledged and commemorated,” Gandhi said.
The historic OR also appears to be the operating room favored by legendary American surgeon Dr. Harvey Cushing—the father of neurosurgery.
From 1912 to 1932, the Harvard Medical School professor and founding surgeon-in-chief at the hospital was a pioneer in surgical technique, including electrocautery, and developed basic techniques and procedures still used in neurosurgery.
The same OR was also used by Dwight Harken, MD, the chief of Thoracic Surgery from 1948 to 1970. He demonstrated early cardiac surgery and is often considered one of the founding fathers of heart surgery and credited as the creator of intensive care units for critically ill patients.
(Source: Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Brigham Bulletin)
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Ryan Davenport presents medal to Geoffrey Barron - SWNS
Ryan Davenport presents medal to Geoffrey Barron – SWNS
A retired police officer who was heartbroken when thieves stole his Exemplary Service Medal last year was stunned when kind strangers tracked him down after they pulled it from a river in a “one-in-a-million” catch.
82-year-old was devastated when burglars entered his home to steal valuables—and took the treasured medal that he’d been awarded when he retired 28 years ago.
He believed the medal, given for 32 years of service with the Northamptonshire Police, was lost forever.
But the grandfather was overjoyed when he received a call last week saying the medal had been found in a river, still in its metal box.
Dave Jordan who uses a large magnet to fish junk out of rivers had organized another litter clean-up and was joined by a teenage fan of his YouTube channel, who brought along his dad to trawl for treasures in the River Nene.
The 45-year-old Jordan said they had been pulling things out of the river in Northampton for just 30 minutes when Ryan Davenport fished out a small blue metal box.
“We would have never of found the medal if we hadn’t tackled all the rubbish in the river first,” said Jordan. “At first, we found old bits of shopping carts and other metal items but about 30 minutes into our fish, Ryan pulled out the box, and it’s got ‘police long service medal’ written on it.”
Pictured Geoffrey’s medal and box found by Ryan and Dave Jordan in the River Nene / SWNS
“It really was like finding a needle in a haystack,” exclaimed Jordan who is followed by hundreds of fans who subscribe to his magnet fishing channel on YouTube.
The medal was engraved with Geoffrey’s name and badge number, which they used to track the senior’s phone number online.
“When I told Geoffrey’s wife Maureen we had found the medal over the phone, she was over the moon, because they never thought it would be found.
“This was truly the best reward for cleaning up that rubbish… It’s amazing.”
A new species of owl has joined the tree of life after having been documented as unique this year—and its Latin name was christened after a local wildlife caretaker who used to sell parrots to the pet trade.
Researchers believe the Principe scops owl is found exclusively on Príncipe, a tropical island off the west coast of Africa, in the Gulf of Guinea.
Suspicions of its occurrence gained traction back in 1998, but scientists first began researching it there in 2016.
It is called Otus bikegila and “bikegila” was chosen to honor Ceciliano do Bom Jesus (nicknamed Bikegila)—a former harvester of gray parrots on Príncipe Island who became a guide, and eventually a ranger for the natural park, after the pet-trade practice had been outlawed.
“The discovery of the Principe scops owl was only possible thanks to the local knowledge shared by Bikegila and by his unflinching efforts to solve this long-time mystery,” according to the researchers.
He was one of the first people to spot the owl while searching for parrot chicks in the early 1990s, but, since then, National Geographic reports that Bikegila turned his expansive knowledge of the landscape toward a positive purpose.
“For nearly a quarter century, he’s assisted scientists on every expedition undertaken to find the owl, including the trip that led to the first-ever photographic evidence of the species, in 2016,” says Nat Geo.
Illustration of Otus bikegila / SWNS
The researchers also chose the name as “an acknowledgment to all locally-based field assistants who are crucial in advancing the knowledge on the biodiversity of the world.”
Otus is the generic name given to a group of small owls known as scops owls that share a common history. Two of those are found throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa—the Eurasian scops owl (Otus scops) and the African scops owl (Otus senegalensis).
“The discovery of a new bird species is always an occasion to celebrate,” said Martim Melo, a biologist at the University of Porto and lead author of the study published in the journal ZooKeys.
Its unique call, a short “tuu” note repeated at around one note per second, was one of the main clues that heralds its uniqueness.
The entire island of Principe was extensively surveyed by the scientific team to work out how many of the owls there are and where they can be found. It turned out they can only be found in one single rainforest in the south of the island, with the birds preferring to stay in the lower parts of trees.
Its habitat has a radius of less than six square miles (15 sq-km), but despite its size being only 4x the size of New York City’s Central Park, between 1,000 and 1,5000 Principe scops owls are packed into it.
Because they live in such a small area, the researchers say they should be classified as critically endangered, especially because their habitat is reportedly “near” a small hydroelectric dam which is being built.
Monitoring the forest will be essential to get more precise estimates of its population and follow any trends.
Even though the island measures only around 54 square miles (139 sq-km), the species is the eighth type of bird commonly found there to be discovered as unique.
“Although it may seem odd for a bird species to remain undiscovered by science for so long on such a small island, this is by no means an isolated case when it comes to owls.
For example, the Anjouan scops owl was rediscovered in 1992, 106 years after its last observation on Anjouan Island in the Comoro Archipelago, and the Flores scops owl was rediscovered in 1994—98 years after the previous report.
“On a positive note, the area of occurrence of the Principe scops owl is fully included within the Príncipe Obô Natural Park, which will hopefully help secure its protection.
SHARE the Wonderful Discovery With Owl-Lovers on Social Media…
Gold Award Girl Scouts / Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles
Gold Award Girl Scouts / Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles
Girl Scouts of the USA will need to give MacKenzie Scott a badge for philanthropy after her donation last month of $84.5 million—their largest gift ever from one person.
The generous grant will help make up for the absence of funds raised from cookie sales and membership during the pandemic.
The former wife of Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos awarded the donation to the national group and 29 local councils selected by Scott—including $4.2 million to the Girl Scouts of Minnesota and Wisconsin River Valleys and $4.9 million to Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles.
“This is a great accelerator for our ongoing efforts to give girls the tools to become the next generation of powerful women leaders,” said the group’s CEO Sofia Chang. “We’re excited to prove how Ms. Scott’s investment in girls will change the world—because when one girl succeeds, we all succeed.”
The group says the grant will also foster an expanded focus on career readiness and mental wellness.
“Integral to this work is expanding girls’ access to STEM exploration, building upon exciting areas of interest such as hands-on coding, aeronautics, and sustainability.”
The money will also bolster staff and volunteer training and “future-proof its facilities, including the iconic Girl Scout camp properties, including expanding both accessibility and high adventure elements at camp.”
The group’s iconic brown and green sashes and vests can be seen on girls enrolled under 111 regional councils nationwide, with Girl Scouts showing up in every zip code of the US.
Quote of the Day: “The greatest remedy for anger is delay.” – Thomas Paine
Photo by: Diana Spatariu
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
A sheep herding dog is still running circles around his favorite animals despite losing a leg this summer.
The border collie named Boss went missing in July while out working, rounding up sheep, and despite an extensive search—even using a drone—the pooch was nowhere to be seen.
Shepherdess Anna MacKinnon was sick with worry until eight days later when her father spotted Boss limping over a hill on their farm outside Perth, in Scotland.
“My dad was like, ‘oh my goodness, that’s Boss’,” Anna told SWNS news. “I couldn’t believe it—I was shaking.”
The four-year-old dog had nerve damage to his front left leg, and after six weeks of vet consultations and waiting to see if it would improve, Anna made the difficult decision to allow vets to amputate.
“It just seemed so drastic, but we knew it was the only thing that was going to be the best for him,” said the 25 year old.
She feared Boss would have to retire as a working sheepdog—but just three weeks after the dog’s stitches were removed at the end of September, Boss was out chasing sheep again.
At Children’s Health of Orange County, California, you need to be on the look-out for tots getting lab tests—because they’ll be tooting the horn at the wheel of their new electric Honda, which is bringing laughs and comfort to sick children.
Designed by Honda engineers to ease the stress and anxiety of hospitalized children, the car brought tears to their adult eyes when talking about its genesis.
Called the Shogo, it was specifically designed to navigate hospital hallways and transport all the IV drips and monitoring machines a child might require. It allows them to drive themselves down the hallways to their treatments; turning what could be a stressful journey into a fun joy ride.
“To see the joy on the faces of these young patients when they get behind the wheel of Shogo is truly rewarding,” said Hundy Liu, manager of national advertising at American Honda Motor Co.
Randall Smock, a senior exterior designer of vehicles for the company, played a significant role in the design of Shogo and called it a ‘labor of love.’
“As someone who spent time in the hospital as a young child, I really wanted the number one objective of Shogo to be easing the hardship of a hospital stay by providing kids a lasting positive memory about that experience.”
One mom said, “I heard Charlie laugh harder than the whole time he’s been in the hospital, so hearing that laugh again makes me want to cry.”
Shogo, based on a Japanese word intended to mean “soaring into the future,” it was built to focus on young patients, ages 4 through 9, who can easily drive with its power controls, manage the go/stop mechanism on the steering wheel. It has an adjustable speed of 1-5 miles per hour, which is controlled by a handler such as a nurse or caregiver.
It includes a toy bucket in the front of the vehicle for items the child would like to bring along with them, cup holders, a center horn with different sound options, and a customizable license plate slot to display the name of each rider.
Shogo also includes a push bar that offers caregivers the option to manually push the vehicle when needed.
All the fun was captured in a terrific video that won a Silver statue at the 2022 Clio Health Awards because it demonstrates the amazing impact that play and laughter can make in the life of sick kids.
WATCH the heartwarming video below…
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A driver who took a wrong turn was able to save the lives of four people after miraculously driving down their street and seeing their house on fire.
A doorbell camera video captures the moment the young man from Omaha, Nebraska, ran around the house to start banging on windows, and calling 911.
Brendan Birt told KETV News 7 that the fire was getting worse every second, but he wasn’t giving up.
“I just felt like somebody was in there because it was so late at night, you know? I just knew that I had to act quick.”
On the video, three kids are eventually seen running out through the door in the Red Oak, Iowa neighborhood—and finally their 22-year-old brother, who was looking after his younger siblings, emerged.
When he saw the kids come out the door, Birt said, “I just felt like I wanted to break down and cry (and) I don’t even know these people.”
The boy’s mother, Tender Lehman, was in Montana at the time dealing with a family emergency.
Mrs. Lehman described Birt, who is a singer/musician, as “family”, now, and called it a miracle.
“They’re safe—and they’re safe because of him,” she told KETV.
Because the family’s home was not insured, a Gofundme campaign was set up to collect donations—which has raised $21,000 of its $30,000 goal—or you can Venmo @Tender-Lehman
Watch the incredible video from KETV-NEWS 7… (Featured photo from video screenshot)
MAKE Sure This HERO Story Gets a Home on Your Social Media Newsfeed…
M. Papadopoulou / University of Groningen via SWNS
Photo by Greg L, CC license
Remember the ‘Miracle on the Hudson’, when Captain “Sully” Sullenberger’s jet flew into a flock of geese and lost both engines, shortly after take-off in New York City?
That was 13 years ago, but now researchers have designed a way to get flocks of birds to disperse using a cleverly-disguised drone.
Besides the safety factors, collisions between birds and airplanes cost the aviation industry more than a billion dollars annually from damaged aircrafts, delays, and flight cancellation worldwide.
A team partnering with the University of Groningen in the Netherlands decided to tackle the problem by developing an artificial raptor, inspired specifically by the fastest bird on earth—the peregrine falcon.
Made from fiberglass and polypropylene, and reinforced with carbon fiber, the fake predator is controlled from the ground and can beam back live pictures of its flight.
Field testing in the Netherlands showed that all flocks were successfully deterred by the RobotFalcon within five minutes after it launched in flight, with half of them resulting in fields being free of birds within 70 seconds.
M. Papadopoulou / University of Groningen via SWNS
The fake falcon was also found to be so realistic, that birds were still being scared away after three months.
“We developed the RobotFalcon and tested its effectiveness to deter flocks of corvids, gulls, starlings and lapwings,” the group reported in a study published in The Royal Society Interface journal.
“In this field study, we tested the effectiveness of the RobotFalcon to drive away bird flocks by measuring the proportion of flocks it drove away, how fast fields were cleared from flocks, how long it took for them to return, and whether habituation occurred.
The test flights were flown in an agricultural environment around the Dutch city of Workum.
“The behavior of the bird flocks was studied upon exposure to the RobotFalcon, to a normal drone, and in control trials without any disturbance.
“We further compared the effectiveness of the RobotFalcon with the conventional methods in current use at a military airport such as distress calls and pyrotechnics.
“The RobotFalcon scared away bird flocks from fields immediately, and these fields subsequently remained free of bird flocks for hours.
It outperformed the drone and the best conventional method at the airbase—distress calls. Most importantly, there was no evidence that bird flocks became accustomed to the RobotFalcon over the course of their fieldwork.
The group calls the lifelike device “a practical and ethical solution to drive away bird flocks with all advantages of live predators but without their limitations.”
The novel method can make a contribution to the problem, but has its limitations. Flights cannot take place during strong wind conditions. Also, the bird was not as effective when it came to deterring large birds, like geese or herons, and a bigger robot resembling a bird such as an eagle may could be developed for that purpose.
No word yet on scaling up manufacturing of the problem-solving peregrine.
FLY This Innovation to Flight-Happy Friends on Social Media…
Quote of the Day: “I kept always two books in my pocket; one to read, one to write in.” – Robert Louis Stevenson (Can you name his famous novels? Answer is found below…)
Photo by: Dariusz Sankowski
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
Stevenson is is best known for works such as Treasure Island, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Kidnapped, and a delightful collection of 66 children’s poems called,A Child’s Garden of Verses.
A woman who waited 24 years for a first kiss with her childhood best friend is now engaged to be married to him - after keeping her feelings a secret for over two decades. See SWNS story SWFTlove. Kate MacNeil and Paul Damon, both 38, were tied at the hip when they met as teenagers in 1997. Despite the school girl, who was 13 at the time, being 'mad' about her best pal, she never plucked up the courage to explain how she felt. The best mates would talk for hours on the phone everyday after school - but lost touch when Paul joined the navy and Kate moved away to college. Kate, a teacher, and Paul, a master woodworker, both married but they followed each other's lives for years online. In December 2020, and after the breakdown of her marriage, Kate, who is a mum-of-two, found the courage to reach out to Paul on Facebook. Two weeks later he replied and the pair talked for hours before he agreed to fly out to Kate’s home in Port Charlotte, Florida, USA. After finally telling each other about their feelings for one another they shared their first kiss and date and decided Paul would move to live with Kate and her children. The couple are now engaged and plan to get married in July 2023.
Kate MacNeil and Paul Damon – SWNS
A woman who waited 24 years for a first kiss with her childhood best friend is now engaged to be married to him—after keeping her feelings a secret for over two decades.
Kate MacNeil and Paul Damon were tied at the hip when they met as young teens in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1997.
Despite the 13-year-old girl being ‘mad’ about her best pal, she never plucked up the courage to reveal how she felt.
The pair would talk for hours on the phone everyday after school—even falling asleep together on the phone.
“We were practically in a relationship but we’d never kissed,” Kate said. “I took the plunge to kiss him when we were 18 but he turned his head.
“I ran away embarrassed and broken. Slowly we stopped talking but I never stopped thinking about him.”
They lost touch when Paul joined the navy and Kate moved away to attend college in Alabama.
Kate, now a teacher, and Paul, a master woodworker, both married but they kept an eye on each other’s lives for years online.
In December 2020, after the breakdown of her marriage, the 38-year-old mother-of-two found the courage to reach out to Paul on Facebook.
“I’ve always loved him,” Kate told SWNS news service.
“I came to a point in my life where I knew I needed to reach out and see if he felt the same way.”
Two weeks later he replied and the pair talked for hours before he agreed to fly out to Kate’s home in Port Charlotte, Florida, in January 2021.
“He messaged me saying, ‘Hey stranger,’ and we just spoke for hours from there,” she said.
Paul, now 38, said when she reached out it was “indescribable”.
“I can’t think of a time I didn’t think of Kate—in all those years we were apart.
“No one measured up to her.”
Besties in the 90s – SWNS
Having finally told each other about their feelings for one another they went on their first date in Florida, and soon decided Paul would move in with Kate and her children.
“We had our first kiss when he came to Florida and it was magical,” said Kate. “I feel like my life is now complete.”
Paul recalls how the friends have always been able to talk to each other about anything, and he “felt like an idiot” when he freaked out that day when she tried to kiss him.
“It was like nothing had changed. It’s amazing.”
“I picked him up from the airport and kissed him,” Kate said. “It was our first one—24 years later.”
After a magical week together, Paul flew back to Williamsburg. Six weeks later he moved to Florida.
Paul said: “We’re still best friends. We’re perfect for each other.”
The couple are now engaged and due to be married in July 2023.
